Long weekend recap

I love playing hooky, it's the best. :)

Friday I babysat my nephew Coleman (he's three, and turning four in October). Since we had a good time picking blackberries between our house and grandma's, I decided he needed a big dose of North Bend and I wanted to make some more jam. We headed out to Fall City and picked roughly $18 worth of strawberries. Some how in the process, Coleman managed to lose his sunglasses. But we sure had fun and his mouth was definitely stained red by the time we left. I wasn't satisfied with only strawberries so we headed up to Bybee Farms in North Bend again and picked a lot of delicious blueberries. Coleman went into orbit, and so did his auntie!

He slept during the car ride back down to Magnuson Park, where I did the kid hand off with my brother. He brought his power boat up and Ryan and I were fortunate enough to have a Thursday evening free from volunteering and climbing and got to enjoy the nice weather. It was my first time to swim in Lake Washington this year! I have to make a point of going out in the water more often - we had a blast.

Anyways, I came home, busted out a lot of jam batches, which unfortunately turned into syrup (screwed up the jam equation somehow) and then got ready for Friday Night Track racing. I could tell during warm up my body was feeling good and ready to go. We started off with a 10 lap scratch race - a warm up really. I placed 9th - not bad considering we had 25 starters. The Cat 3 men's field has gotten large. Then we had a Miss N' Out - I played it smart and patient and it paid off! I made it down to 4 guys to go - gave the last effort too much juice and didn't have anything left for the final sprint. Oh well - much better on my behalf. And I forgot to mention - since the Cat 3 men's field is large - it's sketchy. Several guys are freshly upgraded 4's and don't know how to handle their bikes. I almost had two of them collide right in front of me - thankfully they kept the rubber side down and pulled out of that one. No one needs a late season crash.

Our last race was a 5x5 points race. The tempo was fast - and I had a hard time getting into position. I was playing it patient - but didn't have the gumption to contest the sprints, until the final go and was pipped at the line. But my big HUGE accomplishment for the night? I got my first Omnium point of the season! YAHOO!!!! Why did it take me so stinking long? The important thing - I got one and am now put in the Friday Night print out. Sweet!

My bro and family came out to watch and Bilko made a comment about me "being available for autographs after the race as she's one of the top endurance riders in the country." Ha! I just laughed. Thanks Bilko, you're my biggest fan!

Saturday we woke up to a slight drizzle and got to go to Ryan's company picnic. He works for Pacific Ridge homes and they are so generous to their employees - it's great. We walked away with a new blender, which we made fresh blackberry smoothies with this morning. I only had 1.5 hours available to get a ride in with but relished every minute of it.

Then this morning we slept in till 10 am and had Coleman over again for smoothies before heading out for a late afternoon workout. My pursuit efforts went really well - even though some kid almost crashed me out. A little yelling and they were off the track in no time. I ran into Jeff Pyatt and did a warmup/cool down with one another. He's a cheerful soul and has done a lot for the local cycling scene.

All in all - a great weekend. I'm headed upstairs right now to eat our freshly harvested onion soup - should be amazing and watch season three of Deadwood. Hope you had a good weekend too!